Baltimore County School Board Approves Mays Chapel School

Baltimore County’s school board members approved the building of a controversial elementary school in Timonium last night, on land that’s currently used as a park. Most residents, whose homes surround the 20-acre Mays Chapel Park, strongly opposed the school’s construction. The say few children live in their community but the park is heavily used. WYPR’s Gwendolyn Glenn has more.

Gwendolyn Glenn: The school board’s unanimous vote to construct a 700-student elementary school at Mays Chapel Park did not come as a surprise to most residents. But, Whistler Burch, co-chair of the Save Mays Chapel Park committee says, 

Whistler Burch: We are not giving up. We are going to have a meeting and push forward because we still feel this is wrong.

Glenn: Burch predicts the issue will eventually end up in the courts. But county school board president Lawrence Schmidt doubts that will happen.

Baltimore County School Board President Lawrence Schmidt: I suspect the neighbors could appeal to the state school board…absent that I don’t know what legal action they would be contemplating.

Glenn: Schmidt says residents’ concerns were considered. However, he says the only other land they own where a school could be built to ease overcrowding in the area, has poor roads. He says the new school, set to open in 2014, will retain the park’s athletic fields and jogging paths.

I’m Gwendolyn Glenn reporting in Baltimore for 88 1, WYPR.